British and Dutch police have shut down torrent pre-release music site OiNK after the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) concluded a joint two year investigation with Interpol and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

The site, which has around 180,000 registered members, allegedly gave members the chance to download and share pirated albums before they had been officially released.

The IFPI and BPI said more than 60 major album releases had been leaked on OiNK so far this year, making it the primary source worldwide for illegal prerelease music.

“Once an album had been posted on the OiNK website, the users that download that music then passed the content to other websites, forums and blogs, where multiple copies were made,” an IFPI spokesman told BBC.

“Within a few hours of a popular pre-release track being posted on the OiNK site, hundreds of copies can be found further down the illegal online supply chain.”

Allegedly, the site was operated and maintained by a 24-year-old Middlesbrough man who was arrested today.

Detective Sergeant Tony Keogh, who led this morning’s operation, told The Northern Echo that “this is an infringement of copyright law that in financial terms causes immeasurable lost to record companies.”

“We have been working closely with Interpol and our Dutch colleagues in Amsterdam where the website server is based to ensure that it too was secured at the time of arrest.”

OiNK’s Web site’s servers, which were based in Amsterdam, were also shut down by Dutch police, the IFPI said.

Members joined OiNK web site by invitation only. Also, they voluntarily donate money to keep the site running.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 2:09 pm under Legal, Music.  Print This Post

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